The notoriously private Woody Allen is getting candid about his infamous courtship with Soon-Yi Previn.

“I started the relationship with her and I thought it would just be a fling, it wouldn’t be serious. But it had a life of its own. And I never thought it would be anything more. Then we started going together, then we started living together, and we were enjoying it. And the age difference didn’t seem to matter. It seemed to work in our favor, actually,” the 79-year-old actor said in a new interview with NPR.

woody allen and soon-yi previn

Soon-Yi and Woody in March 1990.

Woody and Soon-Yi, 44, first began dating after the Annie Hall star split from Soon-Yi’s adoptive mother, actress Mia Farrow, 70, in 1992. The couple — who have an age difference of 35 years — later married in 1997 and now have two adopted daughters, Bechet Dumaine, 16, and Manzie Tio, 15.

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“I lucked out in my last relationship. I’ve been married now for 20 years, and it’s been good. I think that was probably the odd factor that I’m so much older than the girl I married. I’m 35 years older, and somehow, through no fault of mine or hers, the dynamic worked,” Woody said of their marriage.

woody allen and soon-yi previn daughters

Woody and Soon-Yi with their two daughters in June 2002.

“I was paternal. She responded to someone paternal. I liked her youth and energy. She deferred to me, and I was happy to give her an enormous amount of decision-making just as a gift and let her take charge of so many things. She flourished. It was just a good-luck thing,” he added.